Far Shore
by noragamii
Summary: When Hiyori dies from saving Yato, he decides to travel to the Far Shore to find her and bring her back. Along the way they are constantly stopped by dangerous creatures and things that want to stop them. But what they never expected was to also find love on their adventure. Yatori.
1. Chapter 1

I'm not sure what about that girl caught my eye. It wasn't necessarily her appearance, though I will admit she was pretty cute. It had been the way that she looked at me. When we passed each other on the street, she did a _double take_. That had _never _happened to me before.

See, when you're a god people don't notice you. If you get their attention by talking to them or waving your hand in their face or something, sure they'll see you. But five minutes later they'll forget. I'd never say it out loud, but it gets a bit lonely.

This girl had noticed me. She hadn't looked through me, like most people did on the streets, she had looked right at me, straight in to my eyes.

So when she pushed me out of the way for a car in the street, that confirmed how different she was even more. And when I saw her body fly through the air and hit the ground, I felt guilt and anger and sadness, stronger than I had ever felt them before in my long life. Because this girl, without even knowing me, and just gotten herself killed for me. The one mortal who had _ever_ looked at me, not through me, was dead. As I watched her friends run to her unmoving body, I knew that it couldn't stay like this. This stranger had saved me, and now it was my turn to save her.

I had thought about death before, everyone has, but I'll tell you that it isn't something you can describe without experiencing it.

When I pushed that boy out of the way, I hadn't been expecting to die. Would I have still saved him if I had known I would be killed? Well…honestly probably not. So I guess the main word that flashed through my mind when I felt myself get hit was, "whoops." "Whoops," as in "I had not idea this would happen," and "I don't even know this kid, why am I dying for him?"

But it was over, I was dead, and I had never been one to dwell on the past extensively. And dying, well, it wasn't so bad.

There was no pain. It was like, as soon as my body realized I was dying, it shut off all of the pain I fight have felt from getting hit by a car. Kinda nice, actually, since it would really suck to die and also feel pain at the same time. Doesn't seem like it would be very fair.

But that wasn't the weird part. It got really crazy when I realized that I was floating above my own body. Like, I was a ghost, or my soul, and I was leaving my body. It would have been fun, floating around, if I hadn't had to watch all of these people, my _friends_, gather around my body. Even if I felt no physical pain, watching my friends cry hurt more than anything. I noticed that the boy I had saved was gone, which pissed me off because I had _died_ for him! You'd think he'd stay to show some gratitude or sadness or something.

As I watched the ambulances speeding toward the accident and the people crying and taking pictures, I noticed something weird. What I was looking at, the scene, it was fading. Little by little the people and landscape below was becoming see-through, and I got really sad because even though I was dead I guess I had kind of hoped I would just stay a ghost forever so I could fly around and check up on people. I even cried a little, because it had really hit me that I was dead and I didn't _want _to be.

And just like that the world I had known was gone, and in its place was a new world. My body touched to the ground and I was given a chance to really observe my surroundings. This world was vast, I couldn't see any sort of horizon, and flat. The sky was a dreary blue-gray and fog coated the ground. There were shadows all around me, and I realized with a start that those were _people_, _dead people ._I looked down at myself and realized that I was basically see through. Not as much as the ghosts around me, but looking through my arm I could faintly see the rocks on the ground.

I sat down with a thud. Would I be stuck here forever? Alone, with no one to talk to, just wandering this world for eternity? This was it. I was really, truly dead now, and there was no going back.

It wasn't particularly hard getting to the Far Shore, I am a god after all. What was basically _impossible_ was finding that girl in a sea of ghosts.

After searching for what was probably an hour or so, I was about to give up when I _finally _found her. She stood out among the gray, her hair a vibrant brown and the school uniform she had been wearing still violet. She was newly dead, so that was probably why she wasn't completely ghost-like yet.

I wasn't sure how to go about talking to her, since she was probably in shock or really freaked out or something. Plus I didn't know how much she would want to the see the person she died for at that moment. But if I just stood around, she would probably disappear into the mist and then it would be impossible to find her.

So, I just walked right behind her and said, "hey."

Well, she jumped about ten feet in the air.

"AUUGGGHHH! What the- hey," she had gotten very still as soon as she saw my face, "I know you. You're the guy I saved! Oh my god, don't tell me you died anyway?"

I couldn't help but laugh. This was turning out to be a lot more entertaining than I thought.

"I'm not _dead_, I'm a god. Yato, the delivery god…"

She blinked a few times, and I was pretty sure I knew what was coming.

"Hmph. I've never heard of you."

Yup, just as I thought.

"Uuuggghh, does _no one_ know who I am?" Well, whatever. I'm Yato, I'm a god, even though on one seems to know me, and I'm going to get you out of here."

The look on her face was priceless. I mix of gratitude, happiness, surprise, and disbelief. It was great.

"You mean, get me out of…" she gestured around her randomly. I couldn't help a smug smile. I loved it when my clients got all flustered.

"That's right. I'm bringing you back to life."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

She was frozen from shock for a moment. I waited for the praise, the tearful hugs, the undying devotion to me for saving her but it….never came. In fact, she seemed to fold in on herself, as if she wanted to escape the statement I had just made.

"I-," she paused as if to think about what she was going to say before she said it, "I'm grateful, don't get me wrong. It's just…have you really _thought this through_?"

I was offended, to say the least. I had just come all the way to the Far Shore to save this girl, who I didn't even know by the way, and she was questioning _me_? She must have seen the look on my face because she started talking immediately, trying to clear up what she had said.

"No, no don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful! But I can't just come back to life, right? I mean, people saw me die. What would they say if I suddenly just showed up on my family's doorstep like, 'hey guys, I didn't die!'?"

As hurt as I was, she had made a good point and I frantically searched my mind for a reason.

"Well…I'm a god! Just tell them that Yato, the most merciless, brave god came to save you _personally_! They'll love it! They'll think you're blessed!"

I was so caught in my daydream-me being surrounded by adoring fans, money, a huge shrine-that I didn't notice how she was looking at me until maybe thirty seconds later. She laughed nervously. Hm, I guess she would get used to my dreams eventually.

"Uhmmm, ok? Anyway, I guess that makes sense. Sort of," she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and I couldn't help but notice how her form wavered, as if she was a hologram, and I immediately thought that if I was going to get her out of here, it was going to be now.

"Listen, um…?"

"Hiyori."

"Right, Hiyori. Finally got your name…anyway. Here's the deal. I'll take you back if you want, and if you don't I'll leave you alone. But see the ghosts around you? See how their bodies are basically see through?" She nodded. "They've been dead for a little while. The longer you stay here the more…dead you become, I guess. Until you completely disappear. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to go back we go back now, or soon you'll be so dead that there will be no way at all. Do you get it?"

I could practically see the gears turning in her head. She looked a little faint, and I felt a small pain of guilt for putting her in this position. But then again, I was offering her a chance to live again, and not many get that.

"I guess I should really decide," she said quietly and I nodded enthusiastically, "but it's just, I guess I believe that everything happens for a reason. And I mean, I died. So isn't it natural that I should stay dead?"

"No! Hiyori, I'm offering you the chance to _keep living_. _No one_ gets that opportunity; so you should honor your luck and take it. You're…how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen. You have _years_ to live. Don't throw it away just because you believe that 'everything happens for a reason.'"

She sighed. And she sighed again. I couldn't understand how this was such a hard decision for her. If I was in her place, well, I would talk the possibility that I would live again in a heartbeat. Her form wavered again, and I knew that if we were going to go, it had to be now.

"Ok."

Her answer was blunt, and it shocked me a little. "Ok?"

"I'll go with you. You're right. It would be wrong of me to give up this chance. And when I do live again, I'll honor those that are dead by living my life to the fullest."

"Mortals can't just _leave_ Far Shore. It doesn't happen. This is gonna be hard, just be prepared for that."

"Yato, _I know_. You're the one who was pressuring me to come with you anyway."

For the past who knows how long, Yato had been going on and on, basically talking to himself, about how this might have been a bad idea, how dangerous this was, how this was going against the most powerful gods, blah, blah, blah. I wondered if he regretted coming back to get me.

"Ok, ok. You're right. It's just…this could be really, _really_ dangerous."

"Jeez Yato, I know!" My annoyance went away in a flash when a sudden though hit me. "You know, I never asked you, why did you come back to get me anyway?"

His incomprehensible blabbering stopped immediately. Maybe he was embarrassed to answer for some reason? I didn't want to push him since he was already doing so much for me.

"I'm sorry. If you don't want to answer…"

"No, it's fine," he got very serious, and I couldn't help but think that his moods really changed quickly. "I guess there's one main reason. It's gonna sound weird though. Ok, well basically when you're a god, especially when you aren't…famous," it sounded like he had trouble saying that, "people don't tend to think about you that often. So that means that people also forget about you easily. So like, when I walk on the street, for example, people will see me but it will never be like they are actually looking at me. Like, I'm just that random person in a crowd. So when you looked straight at me and then _saved_ me, well I guess I guess I felt a little indebted to you. Plus, I was curious cause you're the first mortal who's ever actually…_seen_ me, if that makes sense.'

Weirdly enough, it did make sense. I had felt something strange from Yato, and so hearing him say that he _was_ in fact strange, and the fact that I saved him was strange, made perfect sense to me.

"Yeah, I felt it too. Not in the exact way that you're describing but…it makes sense. Me being the only one to really 'see' you, or whatever. Well, it's good to know that I wasn't crazy in thinking there was something weird about you!"

"Something weird about me? Well jeez, _thanks_."

His being offended by me calling him weird was so ironic (he is a god after all), made me laugh. The first real laugh that I had had in a while. It perked up my mood, and for a little while longer I was happy.

Until the fog came.

It was unnatural, the way it came speeding toward us, thick and fast. Yato stopped abruptly and threw his arm out to stop me. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong, and what that weird fog was but he shushed me.

"Don't talk. Listen," he titled his head to the side and I strained my ears to pick up whatever he was talking about.

For second it was completely silent, and then I heard it.

"Are those…screams?" They were barely audible but I had heard enough to make me terrified. And the weirdest part was, it sounded as if they were coming from the direction of the fog.

"This is unusual," Yato said quietly, more to himself than to me. "They don't want you to leave."

"They don't want me to leave? Who doesn't?" He was silent. "Yato, what is going on?"

I was frantic now, getting no answers about what the fog was, what the screams were, and why on _earth_ it had anything to do with me! Yato turned toward me suddenly, as if he had just woken from a dream and realized I was there with him.

"Hiyori. The fog, it's the Fog of Lost Souls. And those screams, those are the screams of the millions of dead ghosts in the fog."

"Wha-what?"

I had no idea what to think, but I knew enough that how ever scared I was a moment ago, it had now tripled.

"Their screams will drive you mad. If you hear them, you'll probably try to run away or kill yourself. I'm a god, so I'm immune, but you definitely aren't. I'm gonna need to cover your ears or hold you down or something. Do you trust me?"

His demeanor was so different than when we were joking around just a little while ago. This side, it made me think clearly through my fear. He was staying calm and collected, at least on the outside, and I needed to too. Plus, the fog was steadily approaching and the screams were even easier to hear. I barely knew Yato, but I did know this: I didn't want to lose my only chance at living.

"I trust you." He only gave a simple nod, and then walked over to me.

He didn't ask for permission, he just immediately wrapped his arms around me. It would embarrassed me except that his grip was extremely tight, pinning my arms to my sides, and I was quite possibly about to die. I shut my eyes, which was a bit childish since it would do nothing to protect me from the incoming doom.

We stood there, and the fog swallowed us.


End file.
